Xavi Hernandez was not too pleased with the result of the Champions League encounter between his team, FC Barcelona and Inter Milan on Tuesday, October 4, 2022. During the game, Barcelona was denied a blatant penalty after Denzel Dumfries’ handball in the second half. The game ended 1-0 in favour of Inter Milan.
This marked FC Barcelona’s second loss in three games and has put coach Xavi Hernandez and his team in a challenging position to advance to the Champions League knockout round.
A goal from Hakan Calhanoglu in the opening period made all the difference. In the build up to the goal, Ter Stegen was defeated by the midfielder’s low, well-placed 25-yard effort from a central position, which was his first Champions League goal in five years.
When Pedri scored for Barca in the second half, they believed they had saved a point. However, the goal was disallowed due to an Ansu Fati handball.
🚨 VAR disallowed #Pedri’s goal, but denied Barça a penalty because of a handball in the final minutes!
— beIN SPORTS USA (@beINSPORTSUSA) October 4, 2022
Did VAR play against #Barcelona today ⁉ 🤔#UCL #InterBarça pic.twitter.com/SswGTXRJww
This is the Italian team second victory in the Champions League group stage, moving Barcelona down to third place with three points. While Inter Milan remain on the second spot with 6 points, three points behind first placed Bayern Munich.
Viktoria Plzen was the opponent in Inter Milan’s inaugural win. In Inter encounter with Barcelona on Tuesday, the Spanish giants were close to finding an equalizer in the second half but Inter Milan goalkeeper Andre Onana made countless saves to prevent that from happening.
After the game, Xavi Hernandez who was not happy over the referee’s decision to disallow Pedri’s goal, said during the post match press conference that “the referee should be out here justifying why he makes these choices, if he committed mistakes or not. That would make them much more human.”
“I’m pretty miserable right now. I believe there to be true injustice”, Xavi added.
"It was crucial, the referee decided and he needs to be here to talk about what happened!"
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) October 4, 2022
Xavi was very frustrated by that controversial handball to disallow Pedri's goal tonight. #beINUCL #UCL pic.twitter.com/hiODAC0G7n
On the other hand, Simone Inzaghi seemed pleased by the Champions League matchup’s unexpected triumph over a hot Barcelona team. Note that in recent Italian Serie A games, Inter Milan have been suffering from the inability to consistently win league games. In their last league game which was on October 2, 2022, Roma defeated Inter to push Inzaghi’s led team down to the 9th spot on the league table.
However, after Inter victory over Barca, coach Inzaghi stressed the struggle is done and the Inter Milan season has officially begun.
The Inzaghi strategy was successful against Barcelona because Inter gave Barca the majority of the possession and then attacked them on the break.
Before the game, Inter Milan’s manager had additional problems with the in-form Robert Lewandowski of Barcelona, but Inzaghi was able to contain the Polish striker and other Barcelona wingers.
The Barcelona defense was too porous, which gave Inter Milan the impression that they would score whenever they attacked the Spanish juggernaut.
Inter Milan, on the other hand, is currently in ninth place and is seriously debating whether to keep the Italian manager. The club owners might opt to extend his contract beyond the end of the current season if he keeps winning games.
Meanwhile, Xavi sees the second leg against Inter Milan as a chance to increase his point total in the Champions League. Xavi is probably going to adjust his formation to achieve his goal.
If FC Barcelona can win their remaining games against Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, and Viktoria Plzen, they will still have a better chance of making it to the Round of 16 in the Champions League.
@PoojaMedia this is just a day light robbery,same way they cancelled pedri goal @PoojaMedia senior man check a nah pic.twitter.com/2sw1GpJjNj
— Alpha (@Alphatek12) October 4, 2022
What Next For Barcelona and Xavi Hernandez
Barcelona’s Nou Camp will host Celta De Vigo on October 9, 2022. They now hold the top spot in La Liga and have maintained a high level of consistency throughout the competition.
They will undoubtedly triumph and hold the league’s top spot after the game.
While in the Champions League, Inter Milan will visit Barca for the return leg on Wednesday, October 12. The match will kick off at 20:00.
